Monday, October 12, 2009

Printing the Past

Over the weekend, a friend convinced me that I should print my blog into a book so that I will always have a hard copy of it. I've thought of this before, and tried Blurb's blog to book software and found that it put one entry per page. Now, I love myself and all, but not even I want a 1700 page Book of Ashley. Geez. Even if I broke it down by years, each book would still be crazy long.

So in a fit of motivation, I began doing it manually with their software, laying out pages with more than one entry and photos and even some great comments. I could see what an amazing keepsake this will be, and how wonderful it would be to have a tangible copy of my hard work. (Okay, so it's not hard and it's not work, but still.) However, I'm not sure it will be finished before I die of old age. Holy hell.

Is there an easier way? There's got to be an easier way. I decided I would still do it by year and print separate books. 2007 had 200-and something posts. 2008 had 900-and something posts. Yeah, I had way too much time on my hands in 2008 and now that presents a real problem. I started on April 2007 and am just now at July 2007, after working on it most of the weekend.

It is very entertaining to read back through though. I was much funnier when I felt anonymous, and life was pretty awesome back in 2007 when Mr. Ashley worked from home (but I still bitched all the time.) The recurring theme of my started and failed or forgotten projects is very amusing and telling (interestingly, it makes me feel less pressure to finish projects because I've set a precedent of not doing so. Heard me talk about the Shred lately? No? Yeah.) Oh, and I owe Nicole Richie an apology for telling her fetus that it "sucks to be you". Turns out she's a good mom! Who would have thought?

It made me realize that some of us have known each other a really long time now. That's really cool.

And I realized that Big Kid was a much bigger jerk at three than I remember now. He was peeing behind the television, talking shit to me, acting unreasonable, the whole nine yards. This adds evidence to my theory that most 3 year olds are just jerks and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. That's actually good news for me.

But anyway, please tell me there's an easier way to convert a blog into a book? Otherwise, this could end up on the failed projects list and that would be a shame.

10 comments:

E said...

Get a publishing deal. You have a fantastic blog and there will be thousands of people wanting to read you. Seriously.

miss. chief said...

wow, that's a great idea! i love blurb too!

hmm i'm gonna copy you, i think

Jill Ann said...

I printed the 1st 6 mos of my blog on blog2print site this morning. The pricing seemed reasonable. I think I am going to do 6 mos at a time from my blog. I am really hoping the comes out well. It puts more than 1 post on the pages and in general not a lot of work. This might be what you are looking for.

Unknown said...

I had no idea there was software that would do that. I'll have to check that out.

Kara said...

I did a book of my blog using Blurb last year for Christmas (it's a blog about my kids, so it was for all the family members). I thought the Blurb software was a tremendous pain in the ass, but the finished product turns out really nicely. In the end, it was worth the effort, and I'm already working on this year's book for this Christmas.

Unknown said...

E, that would be awesome but isn't as easy as it sounds. However, I do have an editor/mentor now who is very encouraging of me writing a book, and I'm seriously considering doing it for NaNoWriMo next month. So we'll see. Thanks for the compliment and if any publishers see this, I'm yours! ;-)

Kara, did you lay out each page yourself? I didn't want to say anything because I love the company, but what is up with the software?? Damn. However, I will say that it is turning out super cool and nothing automatic could lay it out as well as I can. It's just a lot of work with the only profit being my eventual happiness in seeing it done. I wish I had started much, much, much earlier. If I even get one year done, I'll be really proud.

Jen said...

I also want to print mine, so I'll be watching these comments. I have a friend whose sister just printed hers for her. I will ask how she did it too.

Sam said...

I used Blog2print too, like Jill. I really liked that it was simple to use - definitely don't have the patience to lay every post out! I was super happy with how my book turned out. Love having a printed copy!

Piece o' Coconut Cake said...

So I guess there's hope for Little Kid! Yay!! Maybe we won't have to go visit him in jail on the weekends after all!

Former Fat Chick said...

if Little Kid was ever in jail, I would so form a posse and bust him out...tell him I (the bad ass motorcycle mama) said so!